Nineteen yards. That's all the offense Yale could muster before Penn's replacements came in three quarters into Saturday's 38-21 blowout at the hands of the Quakers.
The 17-point final spread is not indicative of the way the Quakers dominated the Elis.
Going into the fourth quarter Penn led 38-0. With the starters playing, the Quakers blew the Elis away in almost every statistical category. They outrushed Yale by 184 yards and outpassed them by 130 despite losing starting quarterback Pat McDermott in the first quarter.
Penn also held the ball for 10 more minutes that Yale, connected on 42 percent as opposed to 8 percent of third down conversions, and were penalized for 54 fewer yards.
McDermott was injured on a late hit while running near the Penn sideline on the second drive of the game. He was diagnosed with a bruised shoulder and did not return. Yale's Andrew Butler was penalized for a late hit on the play.
Post-game X-rays were negative, but McDermott's status for next week at Brown is unknown.
"For the first three quarters it was about as well as we have played from top to bottom in a long time; so I give our kids a lot of credit," coach Al Bagnoli said. "I just couldn't be prouder of the team. Bryan [Walker] came in when our quarterback went down and played very solidly. Defensively, we kept the pressure on all day, and we won the field position battle."
Senior running back Sam Mathews started off the scoring on the second possession of the game with a one-yard touchdown run on fourth and goal -- which was the second fourth-down conversion of the drive. This was the first of three rushing touchdowns for Mathews. The run capped a methodical 12-play 46-yard drive that took over five minutes.
From there the Quakers got a lot less conservative. After McDermott went down, Walker, a sophomore who played in two games last year, tossed a 48-yard touchdown to running back Joe Sandberg. Another Mathews run on the next the next drive made it 21-0. Thanks to great field position, the two scoring drives took a total of less than two minutes. A slant down the middle of the field from Walker to Matt Carre made it 28-0.
The Quakers dominated every aspect of the game, but especially on the defensive side of the ball. Yale entered the locker room at halftime without a point on the board as a result of a total of negative-17 yards rushing and 26 yards passing. They were averaging a third of a yard per play. Division I-AA's top run defense was up to the challenge of Yale freshman starter Mike McLeod, stopping him for 12 yards on ten carries against Penn's first unit.
"It's very important for us to stop the run especially, and then since we stop the run pretty well we can tee it up for passing downs," defensive lineman Naheem Harris said.
After making Yale a one-dimensional offense, Penn could unleash the pass rush that got four sacks and countless hurries, forcing errant throws from quarterback Jeff Mroz.
"They got to me before I could get the ball out," Mroz said. "If you can't run the ball and you're one-dimensional, teams can tee off on you if they know what you are going to run."
In a game in which it rained all day, there were surprisingly no turnovers. Without the aid of fumbles and interceptions Penn managed to have astonishing field position. The average start of the Quakers' four first-half touchdown drives was at the Yale 46-yard line.
"Field position was ridiculous in the first half," Yale coach Jack Siedlecki said. "Obviously that's a combination of kicking, penalties and being way down in and not getting out."
Yale was getting punts netting less than 20 yards, while Penn punter Anthony Melillo was running would-be punts for 20 yards. Either because of a wet ball or an imminent block, Melillo twice took off running, and twice extended the drive, weaving through the Yale return team for 25 and 19 yards.
